Greetings everyone. This is my first post here. I just joined today. I wish to get some feedback from some of you all on here. It seems this places is full of very knowledgeable members.
I applied for a Discover it student card and was denied. I received a letter from them stating it was due to a charge off in 2013. Before I continue, here is the story of the charge off:
I had an auto loan with Capitol One Auto Finance at 3.9% interest. Back then credit score was about 731 (ish). Sadly, I had to go through some cancer treatment and was discharged from the military due to my health. I withdrew what I had in my retirement funds in order to pay off the small amount of debt I had and to make it through the next several months before I found a job. I withdrew $16k and paid off $4k in credit card and student loan debt. I did not pay off my $22k car loan. Turns out there was an error in the way in which H&R Block filed this on my taxes and I was charged a $10,*** fine by the IRS. So that took all of the money I had and even after I finally found a job, and I was going to school full time, I was still struggline to make ends meet because of having been fined by the IRS. So we continued to pay the care and on CHristmas day some a-hole decided to get drunk and go drunk driving in peoples front lawns, while we were spending Christmas with my wife's family in San Antonio. The car was totalled, so we were told. It was a 2012 Hyundai Veracruz. The police knew who the vehicle belonged to and a witness had seen the owner's teenage boy driving the vehicle. When the police showed up to their door, the man claimed his son was in Mexico even though someone had just seen him wreck my car. The next day the father reported the car stolen. He claimed he always left his doors unlocked and keys in the ignition. Long story short, a few months later the body shop tells my insurance company that the car is actually not totalled because the 2012 Veracruz does not have a frame and in order for it to be totalled, there has to be frame damage. So then I get a call from Cap One saying that I am now 3 months behind. I had used the money I saved from the car payment to go out and buy a used, cheap car to get me by. At this point my whole experience had just been too traumatic and I would not be able to catch up on the car payments so I voluntarily surrended the car. It is listed by Captiol One as a charge off.
Fast forward to 2017: I am a survivor. I have pushed forward with life and and moving closer towards success. I am about to finish my undergrad at the University of Oregon in 4 months and start law school this fall. My credit score was affected but not as bad as I thought it would be. The denial letter Discover sent me has my FICO score at 664. Earlier this month I applied for and was approved for the AMEX blue cash card. I have been using that for everything and paying it daily. I have a 100% on time payment history on my credit karma. I have never given a late payment before on anything. My captiol one account does not show as late payments. I simply got hit hard with life and some jack*** and got set back a bit. But I am a responsible consumer. I understand credit. I really didn't put myself in the situation that I am in, or at least I like to think that I didn't.
After doing some research I read that there is a reconsideration number one can call and have them take a second look at an application. I saw some amazing success stories with these numbers. I called the number this morning and was told by the CSR that they do not do recon's and that I would need to apply again. I don't feel the need to apply again if I was just denied last week. Could it be possible that some reps don't know about recons? Or could it be that the recon number has changed? Or is it that Discover truly does not do recons?
Worse comes to worst, I will continue to use my AMEX card as I am doing right now and apply for an another card in 6 months after I increase my score a bit.
O and I left a 10% balance on the card for the statement closing date and then paid it off the next day. I will do this so they report a 10% utilization.
Currently I have no auto loan (thank heavens), 2 military credit cards which still show as open with $5700 CL and ) 0% utilization. I cannot use these anymore because I have to be active duty to do so. They just haven't been closed by the issuer yet. And I have student loans. This has dramatically affected my average account age. Every semester a new account appears on my credit and now my average account age has dropped from 10 years to exactly 3 years as of this month.
Thanks for reading. I know it's been lengthy.
. My sister served over 10 years but had to get out due to health issues so i understand. Looks like life really did through you a curve ball but looks like you are doing your best at finding that sweet spot.